Augustine in His Own Words
(3.3) We also believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten of the Father, that is, His one and only, our Lord. Yet we must not think of this Word as we do our own words, words which, once uttered by the voice and mouth, reverberate through the air and last no longer than their sound. But that Word [of God] remains beyond change. For what was said of Wisdom has been spoken about the Word: "Remaining in herself, she renews all things" (Wis 7:27). He is also called the Word of the Father because it is through Him that the Father is made known. When we speak truly, we act with our words and aim to disclose our mind to the hearer and to bring to the knowledge of another through such signs what we hold hidden away in our heart. Similarly, that Wisdom which God the Father begot is most fittingly called His Word since it is through Him that the great hiddenness of the Father is made known to worthy souls.
(3.4) But there is a great difference between our mind and the words by which we try to express that same mind. We do not, of course, beget the vocal sounds, but we form them, and it is the body that supplies the basic material in their formation. There is a vast difference between mind and body. In begetting the Word, God begot what He Himself is. Neither did He produce the Word from nothing nor from some kind of matter already found and fashioned in creation, but begets from Himself what He Himself is. If we examine carefully our motive for speaking, we shall see that this is also our aim—provided we are not lying but telling the truth. For what other objective do we have but to introduce (if such a thing were possible) our very mind into the mind of our hearer so that it can be known and fully grasped while we really remain within ourselves, not withdrawing from ourselves? Yet we bring into existence a sign by which our knowledge is engendered in another. As a result, another mind is, so to speak, brought forth by the mind through which this self-revelation is made. We try to do this by words and by our very tone of voice and by facial expression and by bodily gestures, being eager to disclose by so many mechanisms, so to speak, what lies within. We are unable to give perfect expression to a reality of this kind, and consequently the speaker's mind cannot be fully disclosed. Because of this, there is room left for telling lies. But God the Father, who has been both willing and able to reveal Himself perfectly to souls destined to know Him, has, for the sake of revealing Himself, begotten what He Himself, the Begetter, is.23
23. De fide et symbolo 3.3–3.4 (CSEL 41:6–8); my trans., based on Russell, FOTC 27:319–21. This meditation on the similarities and differences between human words and the Divine Word appears often in Augustine's works: e.g., Jo. ev. tr. 1.8–12; Trin. 15.11.20, 15.14.24–15.15.25. It appears especially in his sermons on John the Baptist: e.g., s. 288.3–4; s. 293A.5–13 (= Dolbeau 3).
On the Trinity 283
Unity of Substance and Distinction of Persons
In this same talk, Augustine sets out principles for thinking about the unity of the divine essence and the distinction of the Three Persons. He opens with a traditional analogy of three forms of water (a spring, a river, drinking water). While acknowledging its usefulness for illustrating unity of substance, he stresses that this and other material analogies are of only limited usefulness. From On Faith and the Creed:
(9.16) The Holy Spirit is not inferior in nature to the Father and the Son, but is, as I would put it, consubstantial and co-eternal, for this Trinity is one God. This does not mean that the Father is the same Person as the Son and the Holy Spirit. It means, rather, that the Father is the Father, and the Son is the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and that this Trinity is one God, as it is written: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God" (Dt 6:4). But if we are asked about Each in particular and someone says to us: "Is the Father God?" we will reply that He is God. If asked whether the Son is God, we will answer that He is. And if the same question is raised about the Holy Spirit, we will have to reply that He is none other than God. . . . It is to the Trinity that the Apostle refers when he says: "For from Him and in Him and through Him are all things" (Rom 11:36). Thus, when asked about Each individually—whether the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit—we must answer "God," not, however, giving anyone the impression that we are worshiping three gods.
(9.17) It is not surprising that words like this are spoken about a nature that is ineffable. Something akin happens in the case of those objects that we observe with our bodily eyes and discern by sense perception. When we are asked about a spring, we may not say it itself is a river; if asked about a river, we may not call it a spring; again, we may not refer to drinking water that comes from a spring or a river as itself a "spring" or a "river." Yet if we are asked separately about the members in this trinity called water, we answer in each instance that it is water. If I inquire whether that is water in the spring, the answer would be "water"; if I inquire whether that is water in the river, the answer would be no different; and no other reply would be possible in the case of drinking water. Yet we do not say there are "three waters," but "one water."24 We must, of course, take care that no one represent the ineffable substance of the divine majesty as if one were thinking about that visible and
24. "Not . . . 'three waters,' but 'one water' ": The analogy was a commonplace. Augustine's episcopal audience would have been familiar with it from Tertullian, Adversus Praxean 8 (CCL 2:1167–68). It appears also in Marius Victorinus, Hymnus 3 (PL 8:1143); see Mary T. Clark, trans., Marius Victorinus: Theological Treatises on the Trinity, FOTC 69 (1968), 324–35.